Andon
3101
This is exactly where my gameplay ground to a halt last time too…I just couldn’t get up the motivation to help these useless soldiers and the stupid issues they were having. Maybe I’ll go back and make different choices to help Iorvath instead.
You guys sound like RPGs aren’t for you.
Well, there are definitely some fiddly bits. It’s kind of old school. I didn’t mind the wall of quests or inventory management, but people should go in with the right expectations.
I’m literally drowning in random crafting components and don’t know what to do! I can’t even pick things up anymore because i have so much stuff and have to constantly run back to the box (which was added later after i had dropped off) just guessing what to keep and what not to keep. I haven’t used 90% of the components, potions or spells, and haven’t spent like 7 of my skill points because i don’t know where to put them. It’s a fantastic game and i love what it’s doing but i was playing on Hard, (i think, anyway) and found even basic fights very difficult - those exploding head zombies outside the Act 2 encampment for ex. will kill me several times in a row if i jump back into the game now. I’m at this crossroads where it’s going to take me a few hours just to try out everything and decide which combat and potion and crafting paths to take. It’s a me problem rather than a game problem, i just don’t have the time and attention to dedicate to it to figure out what’s going on to my satisfaction. When a game like Rome 2 comes out, for example, i’ll already understand 95% of the systems there, so despite being very complex and elaborate won’t have that imposing barrier of missing and sub-optimal information that kind of spoils me from Witcher 2. It’s more about being worn out than anything.
It is odd because I love RPG’s. They are probably 50% of what I play. And I actually liked the first Witcher game. I think I just have less patience with them than I used to.
I blame the CoD generation.
DeepT
3107
I love good RPGs. I loved Fallout series, Skyrim, Baldurs Gate 2, Deus Ex, and I think Planescape Torment was one of the best, if not the best RPG I ever played. The Witcher 2 on the other hand just doesn’t do much for me.
What’s a way to get better at combat in the Witcher 2? I died immediately the first time I fought two or three guys, whereas in the Witcher 1 I was a badass (well, up to that swamp plant).
I noticed you didn’t mention any recent Bioware cinematic RPGs. It’s really just one of those, with much better characters and a decent action combat system, plus a few rough edges and old-fashioned mechanics that some people dislike.
Lots and lots of rolling. Roll until your head spins. (It’s so stupid, but I love rolling around in third person fantasy melee games like this.)
Razgon
3110
And blocking - Remember that this isn’t a hack’n slash as much as many other rpgs. Combat is a lot about timing and tactics.
Remember to quaff a potion before combat as well.
First observe, second think, third act. You can’t press W + mouse 1 and win.
Observe the positioning, where you are, where the enemies are, move trying to not be cornered in the enviroment or flanked by the enemy, choose who to attack first, the one that seems an easier target, someone who stepped away from the group a bit more than they should and so you will have time to slash him two or three hits before his mates get to your position.
Observe their animations when they attack, if some are shorter and faster, and other longer and gives you a window of opportunity to attack. Observe in what direction you should go around them, if clockwise or opposite, depending of their attack animations. Observe if they parry or avoid hits. Whittle the enemy little by little, making some hits here, some hits there, don’t be a rush to kill everyone in 10 seconds.
Later you will add new layers of complexity, with the spells, knives, bombs, parries, counter attacks, etc.
So how awesome is Cd Projekt?? Very awesome.
They hired a combat modder (he did the Full combat Rebalance mod in W1) for Witcher 3, he is working as designer. And now he got permission to make an official combat mod for Witcher 2.
http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/255-Full-Combat-Rebalance-2/page8
Full Combat Rebalance 2!
Changes
GENERAL CHANGES
Up to 80% increase in responsivness per Geralt’s animations.
Up to 50% increase in repsonsivness per NPCs animations.
Added strafing while being locked on an enemy and walking.
Geralt can block while moving ( NEW ANIMATIONS ). Static Guard Stance is no longer required to parry enemy attacks.
Geralt automatically parries enemy sword attacks and deflects incoming arrows.
Geralt and his attackers are no longer bouncing off parry. It allows to continue attack sequence.
Monster attacks still cannot be parried with a sword.
While using Guard Stance Geralt channels an active Quen shield.
Above listed changes to defence mechanics decreased importance of rolling in combat.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Decreased the number of skill to ensure quality over quantity.
Geralt now starts with core witcher skills already learned. No need to go through Training tree before unlocking other branches.
Removed many passives from skill tree to replace them with more active abilities. Remaining passives are changed to make them more attractive.
All skills now have one level ( previously 2 ).
Aard and Igni Signs have been changed from projectile to cone area of effect.
Riposte doesn’t require Guard Stance to activate, only attacking in a timed window.
Changed riposte animations ( NEW ANIMATIONS, DUH ) to prevent Geralt from sliding on enemies.
Experience points are given only for progressing through quests, not for killing enemies. This encourages role-playing without worrying about missing experience.
Geralt no longer buys witcher specific recipies from random merchants. He recalls lost memories as a part of character development.
BALANCE
Each enemy is balanced according to his constitution, combat skill, combat style, weapon and armor type. Following this pattern allowed to created consistent rules that every character follows. A barechested bandit won’t survive more hits than a knight in platemail just because the bandit was encountered later in game.
Decreased the disproportion in stats between starting equipment and late game equipment.
Moved the weight of character power from equipment to character development. Learned skills should have as big impact on Geralt’s badass factor as items.
Geralt’s armors are split into 4 categories: leather jackets, heavy leather jackets, combat jackets and heavy combat jackets. Heavier armors impose small damage penalty on Geralt. Players need to choose between max damage and protection.
Items imported from The Witcher savegames are of the same quality as in the first game. An exceptional armor and weapon remains valuable. This makes the game easier, but it is an intentional reward.
Set elixirs and oils duration to 1 hour.
Added potion overdose and heavy overdose debuffs on toxicity thresholds 55 and 65.
Removed Fatigue penalty that decreased sword damage and damage reduction on block when Vigor was spent on Signs or Parry. It discouraged some players from using Signs becaused it decreased Geralt’s sword DPS.
NPCs deal full damage to other NPCs.
Removed 50% Hit Points condition for throwing enemy off height with Aard.
Decreased Riposte damage multiplier to 1.0, but added 30% enemy parry chance debuff.
Riposte no longer costs Vigor.
Silver throwing daggers are considered as silver weapons for damage calculations against monsters.
Inceneration, Bleeding and Poisoning effects are allowed to be active at the same time.
Made quest experience rewards more consistent. There are no longer any situations where player is rewarded with 50 experience points for one quests and 2000 for another.
Made moral choices in quests equally rewarding in terms of experience and items. Players should be encouraged more to role-play instead of weighing quest rewards.
Geralt gains knowledge about monsters faster.
Changed rewards for gaining knowledge about monsters to monster specific oils for swords.
Set minimal damage dealt by Geralt to zero ( was 5 ).
Removed bonus damage for backstabs.
Finally soaked boots in tutorial weigh more than dry boots!!
ECONOMY
Decreased the number of armors and weapons present in game. Amount of equipment is adjusted to provide smoother item progression without making huge amount of items useless stat-wise.
Weapons and armors that are present in the game were picked according to these rules: visual differentiation, witcher low level magic setting. Some items available in game assets but not used in original game were reintroduced.
Moved more quality items from quest rewards to shops and distributed them among Chapters. Player should be encouraged to regulary spend money in shops.
Decreased buying cost of swords and armors. Player should be able to buy items more often, not hoard money.
Decreased amount of loot dropped from enemies.
Removed some of the junk items from container definitions.
Made vendors specialize in certain type of merchandize.
Witcher specific recipies cannot be bought but also cannot be sold to merchants.
VISUALS
Added Focused Combat Stance. Geralt enters focused state during challenging encounters.
While in Focused Stance Geralt performs piruettes ( NEW ANIMATION ) instead of rolling and uses Guard Stance idle animation.
Enemies explode when killed by mage spells. Does not apply to witcher Signs - they are not that powerful.
Made finisher animations which use Signs unlocked by upgrading Aard and Igni in character development.
Removed cutscene swords. Geralt will use his currently equipped sword in all cutscenes.
Equipped enemies with swords according to their social status, wealth and current situation in the game. For example, soldiers patrolling areas near ghost fog in Act 2 are equipped with silver swords like the story suggests.
Decreased camera shake effect used on each step of huge creatures like trolls and golems.
Removed green cloud effect from enemy poisoning FX.
FIXES
Tweaked anim events in all combat animations to improve timings and responsivness.
Fixed sword oils not providing bonus damge against monsters.
Fixed Circle of Power: Endurance giving Circle of Power: Vitality bonus.
Fixed a bug where Geralt was always doing 2 more steps after roll before stopping.
OTHER
Changed item rarity names to reflect witcher’s low level magic setting. Items are no longer MAGICAL and EPIC.
Decreased attacked enemy importance for targetting to make switching enemies easier.
Many, many other changes that were required to make features listed above work.
Looks like he announced the release date: June 20th. No way I am going to play this a third time, but every bullet point sounds good. It may even be worthwhile for new players.
I want to spend a lot of time with it in the arena.
Quaro
3114
Wow some major changes. It’s cool to see the developer directly promoting a huge mod too.
I have a second playthrough started time ago, with the prologue done and the first chapter started. I don’t know what to do, because the mod changes radical stuff (character advancement, skill points, economy, etc) so maybe put it in the middle of a game isn’t a good idea.
Just restart. You can blow through the prologue once you know how to wind a ballista and not get burned by fire.
I considered playing through it with this mod until I remembered the arena.
That’s awesome! I’m up for another trip down badass lane.
Is this going to be added to the patcher somehow, or do we have to grab it and install it ourselves?
Guessing this won’t make it to the 360 version so I may need to buy this again. These dudes are serious post-release support heroes.
